Effect of Load Angle on Limit Load of Polyethylene Miter Pipe Bends¹

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of crack depth a/W = 0–0.4 and load angle (30 deg, 45 deg, and 60 deg) on the limit load of miter pipe bends (MPB) under out-of-plane bending moment with a crosshead speed 500 mm/min. The geometry of cracked and un-cracked multi miter pipe bends are: bend angle, α = 90 deg, pipe bend factor, h = 0.844, standard dimension ratio, SDR = 11, and three junctions, m = 3. The material of the investigated pipe is a high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is applied in natural gas piping systems. Butt-fusion welding is used to produce the welds in the miter pipe bends. An artificial crack is produced by a special cracking device. The crack is located at the crown side of the miter pipe bend, such that the crack is collinear with the direction of the applied load. The crack depth ratio, a/W = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 for out-of-plane bending moment “i.e., loading angle ϕ = 0 deg”. For each out-of-plane bending moment and all closing and opening load angles the limit load is obtained by the tangent intersection method (TI) from the load deflection curves produced by the specially designed and constructed testing machine at the laboratory (Mechanical Design Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mataria, Helwan University, Cairo/Egypt). For each out-of-plane bending moment case, the experimental results reveals that increasing crack depth leads to a decrease in the stiffness and limit load of MPB. In case of combined load (out-of-plane and in-plane opening; mode) higher load angles lead to an increase in the limit load. The highest limit load value appears at a loading angle equal, ϕ = 60 deg. In case of combined load (out-of-plane and in-plane closing; mode) the limit load decreases upon increasing the load angle. On the other hand, higher limit load values appear at a specific loading angle equal ϕ = 30 deg. For combined load opening case; higher values of limit load are obtained. Contrarily, lower values are obtained in the closing case.